Flowing through northern Vermont, the Winooski River is Lake Champlain’s largest tributary watershed. While the main stem connects a vast network of brooks and streams whose drainage basins cover about 10 percent of Vermont’s land area, the river’s beginnings are humble. Situated in the town of Cabot in Vermont’s Washington County, the headwaters of the Winooski spring from the small body of water shown in the clip above.
Map of the Winooski River sub-watershed. Zoom in and click to see brook and stream names.
From Cabot, the Winooski’s main stem flows southwest to Montpelier, then turns northwest. It passes from the east to the west side of the Green Mountains through the Bolton Gap. In Colchester, the main stem meanders through parks and low-lying farmland before draining into Lake Champlain.
Headwaters are significant features of a river system, both hydrologically and ecologically. Given their connection to wetlands and groundwater, headwaters play an important role in determining a river’s flow throughout the seasons.
Headwater ecosystems supply some of the sediment, nutrients, and organic matter that all move continuously throughout a river system. Nutrient “spiraling” is a process by which nutrients, as they flow downstream, are exchanged between the terrestrial and aquatic environment. Nutrients also move between biotic and abiotic systems, or in other words passing through the bodies of living organisms and back into the environment. Organic material, like fallen leaves, support insect life and other ecosystem functions as they too flow continually downstream. All these interconnected processes begin at a river’s headwaters.
To specifically target the preservation and monitoring of the headwaters of the Winooski, the Winooski Headwaters Community Partnership was formed to coordinate the towns of Cabot, Marshfield, and Plainfield. Local stage agencies, planning commissions, and non-profit organizations are involved in the partnership, which focuses on habitat preservation and stormwater mitigation.
In addition to protecting the headwaters of the main stem, restoration efforts also focus on the headwaters of tributary streams, which provide similar organic and geologic inputs to the river system. Three tributaries enter the Winooski from the north: the Little River, the North Branch, and the Kingsbury Branch. Four tributaries join from the south: the Huntington River, Mad River, Dog River, and Stevens Branch.
Individuals and organizations throughout the Winooski River watershed are taking action to protect and restore these important waterways. Recent initiatives have included educating students about aquatic biodiversity through print making, providing free native plantings for the conversion of lawn to forests, and removing obsolete dams throughout the watershed. These efforts directly involve communities in the restoration of the places they call home.
In river systems, “going upstream” to transform conditions downstream is no metaphor; improving bank stability and habitat near main stem and tributary headwaters provides countless downstream benefits for water quality, ecosystem integrity, and erosion mitigation.
Sources: Friends of the Winooski River, Vermont DEC, EPA Watershed Academy